No one is to be trusted and Donland is to use every trick available to him to succeed. The forces arrayed against him are powerful as well as influential. He must deceive and evade those who attempt to stop him from reaching a wreck on an island in the Indian Ocean. The Admiralty and The Honorable East India Company give him the authority to command any vessel he boards. He uses that authority no matter the objections of the captains of the merchantmen or the naval ships he boards.
Having journey from the Mediterranean, across Egyptian deserts then marooned on an island, he finds himself facing five against one! He is once again aboard Oxford and the five ships are ordered to sink Oxford and stop him from reaching England. In the end he must choose to be the king's man or to accept great losses, some which are dear to his heart.